Posted by
Bob Siegel on Tuesday, December 04, 2007 9:56:50 AM
" Isn't persecution good for the church? Don’t trials purify Christians and bring them together in greater unity?”
Actually, it is a myth that persecution is always good for the church. Certainly,
we serve a God who can bring good out of bad situations. God does
promise to be faithful and give us the power to take stands in the
midst of fiery ordeals, but when trials come about before new believers
can be discipled, before they can be taught to walk in the Spirit, the
results are often disastrous.
Perhaps
the most celebrated and glorified time in church history (beyond New
Testament times) is the second and third centuries, when many Roman
emperors launched attacks against Christianity. How
often Christians have watched heroic episodes in movies and marveled at
the unity and purity of this early church, “unstained by the corruption
which often comes with freedom and control.”
It may interest you to know that the real Roman persecutions were a bit more complicated than Hollywood’s version. For
one thing, persecution tended to come and go like the ocean tide,
frequently changing when a cruel emperor was replaced with a nicer one
and vice-versa. During times of persecution, many professing Christians
compromised their faith and denied Christ. True,
there were brave people as well, but they were the ones killed off,
leaving the cowards to run the church when the next Caesar adopted
a more benevolent policy and allowed churches to flourish again. When
repentant people sought re-admission to the church, after having denied
their savior, fellow believers weren’t always sure what to do with them. Did their denial mean that they had lost their salvation? Or had they never really been saved in the first place? Should they be re-admitted into the church? Should there be a probation period? It was a confusing mess!
We may indeed face persecution here in America, no matter how hard we try to avoid it. If
so, let us pray to God for the strength to endure, but let us not
cooperate with the process. Let us not sit back idly and accept the
changing times without a fight.
"I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone- for
kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet
lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our
Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. "1 Tim 2:1-4
This passage makes two important points:
1) There is nothing wrong with desiring a peaceful life. Indeed, God wouldn’t be urging us to pray for peace if peace wasn’t His ideal.
2) Peace is evidently conducive to the spreading of the gospel. Yes,
the gospel has also been known to flourish during times of persecution,
but apparently it spreads even better in a benign environment. Peace
and the gospel go hand-in-hand.
Most Christians had no legal rights in those days. Very
few were Roman citizens like Paul. They did not live under a democracy
as we do. Prayer was their only opportunity to change the political
landscape. Today, we live in a unique time in history when the
governors and the governed are one and the same. If Paul were alive
today, would he have given us additional instruction along with the
command to pray? Would he also ask us to vote, write our senators, lobby for causes, etc? Probably.